The Church can only be understood by faith. Does a believer need a church

26.01.2017, 12:50

Quite recently I had a conversation with one of my acquaintances. Upon learning that I am an Orthodox Christian, he remarked: “I do not believe in religion, I believe in God in my soul. I do not need intermediaries between me and God. " We parted, each was in a hurry to go about his business, but his phrase never left my head. Why did it happen that people stopped identifying God with the Church, and put a sign of opposition between them? Then I learned that his opinion is not isolated. Many people think and confess this way, so with God's help we will try to figure it out.

The concept of religion

First, let's find out what lies behind the concept of faith and religion. Religion translated from Latin means to bind, or unite... It is designed to unite man with the Divine. And the means of communication is an appeal to the Divine, in other words - prayer. Without prayer, it will no longer be a religion, but another philosophical system with a faceless "Absolute", "Cosmos", "Universal mind", etc. With regard to Christianity, we note that Christ came into the world to restore the connection, or the union of God and person. And what is characteristic, He did not leave behind any written teaching. Christ's task on earth was not just another teaching, but a foundation. His Church. The Gospel was written by Christ's disciples decades after His death. And the Apostle Paul never walked with Him on earth at all. People who declare that they believe in their souls, but do not recognize religion and the church, are a little cunning. What do they mean by faith and religion? By faith is understood the recognition of the fact that "Something is," and sometimes a personal God, and by religion, our Orthodox Church.

The Role of Rites in Church Life

“Why all these rituals, candles, bows, all this is superfluous. God doesn't need all of this, ”they say. Here you can agree. Indeed, God does not need candles. He doesn't need anything at all. He is the PERFECT SPIRIT. And he doesn't need anything. That's right, not bows, candles, are the essence of religion. This is just a ceremony, a shell. But let us note that there is no content without form. External exercise in fasting, vigil, bowing in Christianity is called ascetics which in translation means training. We, sinful people, are not only made of spirit, but also flesh. And this flesh always tries to guide our entire being, including our spirit. To prevent this from happening, we keep the body in check. Christ did not found a new religion. He founded the Church. Why do people not want to believe in the church, but believe in their hearts? The answer is simple. The root of all selfishness and sinful selfishness. It is very convenient to believe in "Faceless SOMETHING" that lives somewhere out there and has almost nothing to do with me on earth. It is there, and we are here.

Church divine-human organism with Christ at the head

Believing in the church is another matter. Whose Head is Christ, and where God is a Person endowed with reason, where He is the Creator and Ruler of everything. And God requires me to fulfill certain moral laws. But this is not the main thing in Christianity. In order to live with God, I need to unite with Him, in the sacrament, and constantly stay in his Church. Salvation is impossible without the Church and the Eucharist. Because the Church is not a Patriarch, not a priest, not grumpy old women. The Church, as Khomyakov aptly put it, is "the spirit of God living in intelligent creatures." Therefore, the Symbol of Faith speaks of faith in "one, holy catholic, and apostolic church."

Self-love is the root of all passions

Of course, believing in the church implies the fulfillment of all the rules, fasts, canons that were left to us by the saints who passed the thorny path to heaven. All this requires the infringement of one's "I". Your selfishness. This is the whole reason for not believing in the church. This is the whole root. And everything else is superficial and far-fetched. From a person who does not want to go to the temple, you can hear a sea of \u200b\u200bexcuses - and "Money is rowing with a shovel"and "Incomprehensible language of worship"and "The service is long and there are many posts" etc. And more and more calls are heard (including from the clergy) to simplify, translate, reduce. Everything for the comfort of the parishioners. But the value of the ideal of the church lies in the fact that they strive for it, and do not lower it and adapt it for themselves. In our time, those who have read the words of Christ about the Pharisees are terribly afraid to become them. And now their prayer goes something like this: “Thank you, Lord, that I am not a Pharisee. I DO NOT pray, I DO NOT fast, I DO NOT give alms ”, etc. Therefore, a believer “in his soul” can be safely called either an atheist or a pagan who needs God in urgent cases. Without the Church, without Communion, a person cannot overcome sin in himself, he cannot heal his soul. He will not change, and will remain the same as he was a captive of the wicked one and in this form will appear before Christ. What will he answer Him?

In conclusion of the above, the apt words of the saint can be cited: "To whom the Church is not a mother, to him God is not a father."

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Well, you raised the topic! I am from a family of Old Believers. As for the Bible, that's how Christ drove the merchants out of the church, remember? Now the situation is similar. In churches, they sell church candles and attributes of rituals. I strongly doubt that churchmen fulfill (not all) their sacred mission of working with the souls of their parishioners. Remind me which of the current churchmen during your lifetime was cononized? There are no such. It seems to me that now for priests this is an ordinary job, for good money, and not life for the glory of God! So, Old Believers are people who prayed and lived according to God's covenant even before the appearance of churches in Russia, they are Gnostics, that is. the very beginning of true faith in God (not to be confused with sects). Man was created by the Lord in his own image and likeness, including in us there is a soul - this is a particle of the Creator. And I can directly, without priests, address the Creator, he me ...

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More than once I have heard, including from people dear to my heart, the saying: "Faith in God is one thing, but the Church is another." How to understand this? Marina

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If we consider the dictionary meaning of these expressions, then, indeed, “faith in God” is one thing, and “Church” is another. Probably, every person at least once in his life thought about God in one context or another. Even atheists are not indifferent to God - I recall the words of one believer addressed to atheists: "If there is no God, why are you fighting with Him?"

And the experience of observing people both belonging to the Church and “walking by themselves” shows: there are people who believe in God, but do not want to belong to His Church, but there are those who are baptized and consider themselves members, so to speak , church organization, but from their lives it is not clear that God is important to them. Of course, any external observation of ...

Archimandrite Markell (Pavuk), the confessor of the Kiev theological schools, answers the questions of the readers of Pravoslavnaya Zhizn about spiritual life and relationship with God.

- Father, today I would like to answer some letters from our readers. All of them are united by one theme “How not to betray God”. For example, our reader asks: “If the social circle is mainly composed of secular people who are far from the Church, do they need to tell them that you go to church every Sunday? A couple of times I answered the question of my acquaintances about how I spent the weekend, that I was in church - they chuckled in response. Do I need to initiate non-church acquaintances into the religious aspect of my life? Should I testify of my faith? Wouldn't silence be a betrayal before God? " Please comment.

- Let's turn to the Gospel right away. The Lord says: “Throw not your pearls before the pigs” (Matt. 7: 6). That is, if we see that the people with whom we communicate are completely unprepared for conversations on ...

Orthodox chapel of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem. Photo: A. Pospelov / Pravoslavie.Ru

There is one very important idea that is often heard in the polemics between Orthodox and Protestants. “Why do you build such huge temples, spend so much money and resources on setting up a place of worship to God, Who clearly said:“ The time is coming when you will worship the Father not on this mountain or in Jerusalem ... But the time will come and it has already come when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such worshipers for Himself. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth ”(John 4: 21, 23-24). Do you really think that God needs these temples, magnificent vestments, expensive decorations? " - they ask us with undisguised satisfaction. But it is this last thought that should cheer us up. This means that the people who speak to us are not far from Orthodoxy, which means that we will be able to understand each other, because this is the basis of the Orthodox attitude towards the church: ...

It seems that here it is necessary to emphasize the difference between the CHURCH and the TEMPLE, the literal translation of the word church - (e'kklhsi / a - Greek "ecclesia" - a meeting, a community of convened), but a temple is a building for religious rites.

So, according to the Bible, in order to believe in God, neither the church nor the temple is needed, because “demons believe and tremble” (James 2:19), and they must be thought far from the church ...

However, “just faith” is not enough to be saved, deeds are needed to confirm this faith - “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20)

The Church, according to Paul, is needed for this: “Let us be attentive to each other, encouraging to love and good deeds. Let us not leave the meeting (CHURCH) of our own, as is the custom of some; but let us exhort [one another], and the more so, the more you see the approach of that day. ",

in a word, the church is needed for mutual encouragement of believers and for organized service to God, BUT these are not "signs of the cross" and not bows to icons, relics, etc.,

Jesus generally condemned ...

archpriest Alexander Glebov

Today, to the question: "Are you a believer?", Most people answer: "God is in my soul and I do not need intermediaries." How would you comment on the fact that the Church, in the mass consciousness, is withdrawn from faith in God?

The question is very topical. First of all, such a question arises from a lack of understanding by many people of the function of the Church, its purpose. Today the question of the Church is, first of all, the question of church culture, of church holidays, of saints. More enlightened people can ponder on Christian philosophy and history. But it is extremely rare that the question of the Church concerns the essence of the Church itself. Despite the number of churches and the number of people who consider themselves, at least by the fact of their baptism, to the Orthodox faith, the question of what the Church is and, in fact, what it is for, remains open for many today. Wrong understanding of the Church often leads to its criticism. Performance…

View Full Version: If you believe in God, do you need to go to church?

I just can't understand: if you believe in God, is it really necessary to go to church? If I pray in the evening. in the morning, I try to live with God in my heart, but I rarely go to church, only on big church holidays. I do not like crowding and worshiping icons. After all, Jesus said: "Pray not in the temple, but in your heart." Or am I wrong?

I also think that going to church is optional. The main thing is that God is in your heart. The church is only a mediator.

Very often external actions hide the deep meaning of what is happening, but on the other hand: if you accept any doctrine, then observe the ritual.

Of course not necessary. The church has long turned into an ideological apparatus for taking money away. In some churches it is generally harmful. The education and literacy level of many priests also leaves much to be desired.
But still there are temples and temples. If you are lucky and you ...

Do I need to believe in God?

Man is by nature an unbeliever. All children are atheists, because, being born, we still do not have time to assimilate the stereotypes and dogmas imposed on us in society. Not knowing about the dogmas of the so-called "faith", children do not know anything about God (gods), and up to a certain point the parents are the highest authority for them. And only then, from the parents and the general environment, the child forms certain ideas, whether atheistic or religious. One thing is indisputable: all children are originally atheists.

Who are the believers? Believers are those who recognize the existence of a higher, supernatural being or beings.

And in what or in whom does God believe, if only as an unscientific hypothesis to admit his existence? Let's take the Christian god as the closest to us geographically.

Genesis claims that God created man in his own image and likeness. Hence, if he is a believer, it means that he created a person as a believer. Jesus, his ...

Posted by Djin88

I think that in order to believe in GOD you do not need to go to church, because faith should be in the heart in the head, and the church acts as a mediator (such as a direct connection with GOD). You may say, but what about prayers, you can also pray at home! Try to convince me! Maybe I'll change my view!

You speak of the church as a temple, a building. And really, why do people, believing in God, build temples?

What is a temple for God?
“As long as a person remains an earthly creature — a soul-bodily, extended-spatial, personal and multiple — he inevitably introduces the God he is contemplating into his“ categories ”, as if“ expressing ”Him in the language of his earthly nature. A person who has felt the ineffability of the Divine, nevertheless, speaks of His omnipresence; a person who confesses that God is everywhere and everywhere still builds a temple for Him. "

The temple is, as it were, the "earthly dwelling" of the unearthly and omnipresent God: for the pagan, the semi-presence of God himself in the guise of an "idol"; for a Christian - ...

What is the Church for? This question cannot be answered unequivocally, because believers and non-believers will answer it in different ways. If for the first the Church is Truth and Life, then for the second, at best, a kind of social non-state institution, the activity of which has some useful aspects.

The Church gives a person the main thing - Faith, Hope, Love. For a believer, the question of whether there is a God is meaningless, because all life is a visible confirmation of His existence. God is revealed to those who seek Him. How does a person get on the path of faith? If his parents did not instill faith in him from childhood, then most often he comes to her in the days of difficult life trials. When a person has nothing to hope for, he turns to God. You can call it stupidity, the act of a weak, desperate person. And we can say that in the soul of a confused person, for the first time in many years, something true woke up and reached for the Light. On days when everything is all right with him, ...

Faith in God is not only the knowledge that He is, but a sincere desire to fulfill His holy will, a sincere desire to live according to the will of God. Many people think that it is enough to believe only in the existence of God, in His love, justice, omnipotence. This is not enough. The Word of God says about such “believers”: “And demons believe, but they tremble ...”. Belief in the existence of God alone is not enough. Scripture says: "Faith apart from works is dead ...". Without any deeds? Naturally, we are talking about deeds that please the object of our faith, that is, the Lord God. In other words, faith is not only knowledge about God, but also the sincere fulfillment of His holy will. When a person fulfills the commandments of God, lives according to his conscience, then and only then can he be called a believer. Faith is not only a property of a person's soul, but also a state of his mind, will, feelings. Faith in God is not only the fulfillment of the holy will of God, but also the discernment of the will of God in everything. Or in other words, the ability to see the will of God in everything. That is, the same event can be ...

Ekaterina

Well, yes, and that this is not the wedding of Aladdin and Princess Budur, but so ... sleep. So ... eat, drink, dear guests, this is just a dream ... and in the morning We will cut off his head.

I don’t eat, so in a dream I, and convinced myself that God had cured me. That the doctor waved his hand (hopeless) is a dream, and that without one pill and an injection I got up, the same dream that 12 years after I live, because all my relatives convinced themselves that I am alive, and they are in a dream, like at that wedding. Here you proudly wrote in your profile that you are an atheist, and my wife "proudly" fought with my faith, but how I got sick, and the doctor waved his hand, "guessed" to take the post (this is a must, a warrior against the faith, ... and in fasting), also begged my neighbor to support her in fasting (And the Church prayed), and ... here I am writing to you in a "dream ".

Not only that, with my “lost” and “sleeping” eyes I saw my brother and sister, whom the doctors sent home to “die”, but they “did not want”, took and were healed (inspired themselves) so much that they “straightened” their analyzes. .Doctors look with clear eyes (not ...

How to believe in God? And is it possible to learn Faith?

Each person comes to faith in God in his own way. People understand and feel Faith in different ways. A separate question is who, in principle, can be considered a true believer, and who is not. It's not enough just to say, "I believe that God exists."

Faith is a tremendous power and it can give a lot to a person who truly believes. And if faith is formal, if these are just the words “I believe in God” and behind these words there is no definite worldview, spiritual work on oneself, deep feelings and a righteous way of life - this is not faith, but falsehood, an empty phrase.

Faith in God is a spiritual, energetic connection with the Creator, it is His protection and help. Faith is feelings and fire, God's flame in the spiritual heart of a person (Atman), which fills the soul with Light and Power, Joy and Vision of the Future, fills life with high meaning. Read more about what Faith in God is - read here.

Also, before starting to form ...

Do we need a church?

DO WE NEED A CHURCH?

Church!!! What associations does this word evoke in you? Do you go there? If so, why? Do you want to find God there? Is He there? Most young people do not attend church. Why? Probably they don't believe in God. Or maybe they don't want to believe? Is God so awful that more and more people are turning away from him? The legalized representative of God is the CHURCH. Are her motives pure? Everyone has heard about her infallibility, but is it really so? This is the whole problem. The Church throughout her life has presented God in a way that suits her. Many go to church from childhood, but what do they know about God, about the Bible? What do they even know about their faith? Of course there are advanced individuals, but what about the other 99%? What do they get from the church? The rescue? Peace? Hope? Or love? Or maybe they don't get anything there? Then why do they go there? Because it is so accepted! Going to church is an indicator of faith in God. Only…

No faith in God

There is no faith in God and this is no longer a secret, but an existing reality. In this article we will discuss this and also get answers to such questions: What does the book "Origins of Modern Atheism" teach about faith in God today?

The era of disbelief: is it worth continuing the search?

People now remember God less and less, dispensing with him in everyday affairs and decisions. […] God was supplanted by other values \u200b\u200b- income and productivity.

Once a person saw in God the meaning of life and all his undertakings, today God has remained only on the outskirts of history. [...] There is no longer a place for it in people's minds.
Nesh M. The origins of modern atheism (Neusch M. Aux sources de ...

Orthodoxy - Praise God Correctly

How many faiths in the world come from?

The enemy of our salvation, the devil, has engendered and is engendering countless false teachings, heresies, sects and schisms, through which he separates people from God forever (right. John of Kronstadt).

How does our Church treat Catholics?

Our Orthodox Church considers Catholics to be heretics (Venerable Macarius of Optina).

Can you think that good unbelievers or Mohammedans will be saved?

It is a mistake to think and say that good people between Mohammedans and unbelievers will be saved, that is, they will enter into communion with God. The Church has always recognized that one means of salvation is the Redeemer, the Savior (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).

Can you think that Catholics will be saved?

The Monk Paphnutius Borovsky saw in hell the prince of Lithuania Vitovt, who had fallen there for the sake of a false Catholic faith.

How to show sectarians that their faith is not saving?

Ask the sectarians: where are their holy saints, miracle workers, ...

From time to time we hear that faith and the Church are completely different things that are not connected with each other, that faith can do without the Church. Is it so?

The ancient philosopher Aristotle advised starting any reasoning with the definition of concepts - what exactly do we call this or that word? What is faith? This word can mean different things. Sometimes it’s just a reluctance to come to terms with the meaninglessness of the world, with eternal non-existence as the result of everything: “if they bury it, the burdock will grow,” sometimes it’s a vague feeling of the presence of something incomprehensibly high and beautiful. sometimes, in a moment of trouble or danger, a request for help and protection addressed to someone is often not even very clear to whom. Sometimes it's just an admission that God probably exists somewhere out there, outside of my life and everything I deal with.

Such a faith, of course, can do without the Church - and it did just fine. The apostles, coming out to preach the Gospel, turned to people who already had a religion. Atheists in the ancient world were practically unknown: people worshiped certain gods, called on them for help, tried to establish a connection with the supernatural world using certain rituals, believed in this or that afterlife.

The apostles did not call people to believe in the reality of the spiritual world - they called to reject false gods for the sake of the true God. This may seem strange to many modern people: does it really matter how to honor the divine? Do not all roads lead to the top of the mountain? The trouble is that in our time atheism has given the religious search a shade of some kind of frivolity, fake - people strongly doubt the reality of the spiritual world in general and tend to view the spiritual search as a game. As one popular modern author writes, religiosity is part of human nature, and it doesn't really matter which religion you practice as long as it suits your needs.

However, in human life a moment inevitably comes when, in the face of an important choice, in the face of tragedy, in the face of death, the question of spiritual reality arises with utmost seriousness. What (or rather, who) can really save us? While we are at home, the saying about different paths to the top seems to be the height of wisdom; but when we have to hit the road, it is very important to know the right path. In the mountains there are abysses, landslides and avalanches, and it does not matter which way you try to get to the top.

Way, truth and life

Where to look for this path? There are things that are so self-evident that we cannot see them; one of those things is a calendar. We go to work, celebrate holidays, celebrate the new year, argue about historical events and usually do not notice that our calendar, like any calendar, has a point of account. History is divided into years "before" and years "after" a certain moment, into what was "before our era" and "our era". What is the central event? This is the birth of one Man. He was not a powerful emperor or a great commander, that is, one of those who are usually written about in history books. He grew up in a family of poor artisans, in a small, politically insignificant country, occupied by the troops of a huge empire. He spent most of his life completely unnoticed, and only for the last three years did He walk around the country preaching His message. The spiritual leaders of His people considered Him a blasphemer, and the occupying authorities considered Him a dangerous troublemaker. He was arrested and put to a terrible, painful execution. One of his disciples begged for His body and buried Him in a tomb. This Man has not written a book. He did not found a dynasty. He did not create a state. But He left disciples, and from them we know about Him. From them we know what turned the whole history of the world upside down: He rose from the dead and they saw Him alive. His name was Jesus, and it is from His birth that we count the years.

The Gospels - the testimonies that have come down to us, left by His disciples - convey to us both His words and the reaction of the listeners: never a man spoke like this Man (John 7:46). These words don't just reflect emotional distress - they are literally accurate. A man named Jesus called God his Father; Moreover, He said that He was with the Father before the foundation of the world, that He and the Father are one, that He, Jesus, will come to judge all nations on the last day, that our eternal salvation or eternal destruction depends on how we react to Him, Jesus Christ. Every reader of the Gospel is faced with the inevitable question - is this true? We can read the works of ancient authors, have respect for them or, on the contrary, dislike, trust or not trust their words - but, regardless of this, we know that these people died long ago, and all that we have is their words.

But if what the Gospel says is true, then the text takes on an unexpected dimension. Jesus turns out to be not a character of ancient history, not an ancient philosopher or teacher of morality, but a living God and Savior who is present here and now, in this very room, just as surely and realistically as He was present among the inhabitants of Palestine about two thousand years ago, and we can meet Him.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh writes about this experience of the meeting: “I sat and read between the beginning of the first and the beginning of the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark, which I read slowly, because the language was unusual, I suddenly felt that on the other side of the table, there was Christ".

We can experience a vivid mystical experience - like Vladyka Anthony, or we may not, but if the Gospel is true (and it is true) A man named Jesus here and now addresses us the question: Do you believe in the Son of God? (John 9:35). Jesus' claims are so radical that we cannot politely evade an answer; we have to say yes or no.

He is the Lord of the universe, and until we acknowledge Him as our Lord, we are in a tragic and pernicious rebellion against the very foundations of reality. Christians are those who say yes; those who accept Jesus' words about Himself as true. It is this answer that is called the Christian faith, and it is from this answer that everything else follows - the attitude towards God, people, towards oneself and, of course, towards the Church.

Kingdom

For most people (including religious ones), religion is a set of rules. Some of these rules are praised, some are scolded, but both agree that this is a set of rules. In addition to the rules, in religion there are also sacred texts in which these rules are spelled out.

There are rules and texts in Christianity. But the center of Christianity is not here. Christianity is a presence. At Christmas we do not celebrate the sending of the Law or the bestowal of sacred texts. We celebrate the appearance of God who came and dwelt among us forever. As the Evangelist John says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. Everything through Him began to be, and without Him nothing began to be that began to be. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it .... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt with us, full of grace and truth; and we have seen His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father (John 1: 1-14).

The Greek verb, translated in the synodal translation as "inhabited", has a grammatical form that rather means "settled and continues to inhabit." God took on human nature, became one of us, in everything similar to us, except for sin.

When Christ ascended to the Father, He was not “incarnate” - the glorified Man is at the right hand of the Father in heaven; moreover, this Man dwells among His faithful here on earth: For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them (Matthew 18:19). And now, I am with you all the days until the end of the age (Mt 28:20).

In modern language, the words "Kingdom of Heaven" have become simply a synonym for the afterlife, the afterlife. “The kingdom of heaven is to him,” we usually say about someone who has recently died. But in the Holy Scripture we are talking about something else - about the reality of the dominion of Christ, which in its fullness will appear in the future, but is already present in our world. The subjects of the Kingdom already live among us; moreover, anyone can accept this citizenship. The moment will come when our true King, Jesus Christ, will return in glory, and, as the Bible says, “every eye will see Him,” but even now He is present among His faithful. Christianity is not a set of rules; Christianity is Presence. That is why it cannot be "crossed" with other religions, as people often suggest. You can “cross” sets of rules - but you cannot cross Presence with Absence.

I will build My Church

How can you become subjects of his Kingdom? Christ (no matter what some popular authors write) did not found dynasties, did not create states, did not write books. What did He leave us? How can we enter into fellowship with Him, become His own? He himself says about this: I will create My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matt 16:18).

He left the Church - the community of the faithful, which keeps and proclaims His word, performs the Sacraments established by Him and helps its members walk the path of salvation. The very name of Jesus Christ is known to us because all these two thousand years the Church proclaimed Him; the gospel itself has come down to us because it was reverently preserved and preached by the Church. Even those people who rebel against the Church, wanting to offer us some of their own message on behalf of Christ (like Leo Tolstoy, for example), are forced to take the same Gospel taken from the same Church as the basis for their constructions.

“The gates of hell will not prevail against her,” says Christ, implying that they will try very hard to do it. In a sense, the Church is called "militant" - it proclaims the true King in a world engulfed in rebellion, in a world where certain false kings claim absolute allegiance. Many times they tried to destroy the Church purely physically: the first actions were taken by the Roman emperors, the last ones took place in our country (and some other countries) relatively recently. But even more dangerous for the Church were attempts to replace the message that it preaches with something else, to replace the Good News of Christ with some other message - maybe with the same name, maybe told in almost the same words, but different. Such attempts in the history of the Church have been called "heresies."

Therefore, the unity and continuity of faith is so important - the Church throughout the face of the earth, from the time of the Apostles, has been continuously preaching the same faith, expressed in many testimonies: from the texts included in the New Testament to modern catechisms, and leads people to believe in one and the same Jesus Christ about whom the apostles testified.

The rite of the Announcement (preparation for Baptism) contains the following words: “Standing at the door inside the church, the priest asks the catechumen:“ Who are you? ” He answers: "I am willing to know the True God and seeking salvation." Priest: “Why did you come to the holy Church?” Proclaimed: “To learn the true faith from her and to join her”. Priest: "What benefit do you hope to receive from the true faith?" Proclaimed: "Eternal and blessed life."

We gain eternal and blessed life by following Christ; and we recognize Christ in the Church that He created.

Is it really necessary?

However, it often happens that a person agrees with the proclamation of Christ that the Church proclaims, but does not live the church life, does not participate in divine services, and does not begin the Sacraments. “Faith must be in the soul,” they say in such cases. Is this true? The Christian faith is not only about certain beliefs. This is a certain relationship. Scripture compares this relationship to marriage, citizenship, or military service. It hardly makes sense to talk about "marriage in the soul" or "citizenship in the soul." Submission to the heavenly Kingdom also cannot be reduced to something "in the soul."

Imagine that, say, the King of Narnia announces that he accepts all comers in his citizenship. Those who wish should appear at the Narnian embassy and swear allegiance to the king during the solemn ceremony; thereafter, they must confirm their decision by participating in the regular receptions that the embassy hosts during the Narnian holidays. Now imagine a person who says: “in my heart I am a Narnian, maybe even a better Narnian than all those who gather at the Narnian embassy; therefore, I will neither swear allegiance to the Narnian king, nor celebrate the Narnian holidays. " Doesn't it seem ridiculous to us? Who is this Narnian who wants nothing to do with Narnia?

Our intention to be subjects of the Kingdom must also be manifested in a certain way, and the Scriptures clearly indicate how. God himself sets the conditions on which we enter into a relationship with Him. Sometimes people contrast “spirituality” with “rituals,” but when you read the Bible, one unexpected thing comes to light. God has surprisingly little to do with what we often call "spirituality." One of the key points of the Old Testament - the exodus of the Jews from Egypt - includes a detailed description of the ceremony that the believers were supposed to perform. They were to kill the sacrificial lamb, bake it over the fire, and eat it during the solemn meal; and anoint the doorposts of the doors in the house where they are with his blood: And your blood will be a sign on the houses where you are, and I will see the blood and I will pass by you, and there will be no pernicious plague between you when I smite the land of Egypt (Ex 12 : 3-13).

Participation in the sacrifice and the ritual meal (both at the time of the exodus and later, when the people remember this event) is a prerequisite for belonging to the people of God: and whoever is clean and is not on the road and does not celebrate Easter, that soul will be destroyed from the people his own, for he did not bring an offering to the Lord in due time: that man will bear the sin (Num 9:13).

Only some insurmountable circumstances can excuse a person who does not perform the established rite. Anyone who despises worship of his own free will is considered to be cut off from the people of God.

A modern person may be perplexed: why all this hassle with lambs, smearing the jambs with blood and other incomprehensible rituals? Doesn't God know who believes in Him? Aren't human hearts open to Him? Doesn't He see the soul of every person at a glance?

Undoubtedly he sees, and Scripture speaks of this many times. But God says that the sign will be exactly the sacrificial blood on the houses of believers - and it is on this basis that "there will be no destructive ulcer." Does God here promise safety to those who “believe in their hearts,” but considers the rite an unnecessary hassle? Not.

God establishes the sign by which He recognizes His own - the sacrificial blood on the doorposts. The faith we are talking about here must appear in a symbolic act established by God - the offering of sacrifice, the anointing of the jambs with blood, otherwise God will not recognize it as faith.

The New Testament continually draws a parallel between the Passover lamb and the Lord Jesus, who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). This understanding of Jesus as the Lamb is also evident in His words about the bread of life: Jesus said to them: truly, truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him (John 6: 53-56).

What is meant here is clear from other Gospels, where the Lord establishes the Sacrament of the Eucharist during a farewell supper with the disciples, which later became known as the Last Supper: And when they ate, Jesus took the bread and, blessing it, broke it and, distributing it to the disciples, said: take, eat: this is my body. And taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them and said: Drink from it, all of you, for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Matt 26: 26-28).

The Lord says that He saves us through faith: the believer has eternal life (John 6:47). And He establishes certain actions in which we must express our faith - Baptism and the Eucharist. If we do not want to express our faith in this way, then we do not have it.

Bishops, priests and diacons

The first Eucharist, according to the Gospel, was performed by the Lord Jesus himself; and since then it has been performed in all churches around the world. But it is very important for us that those who do it receive the authority to do it from the Lord Jesus through the apostles. Going back to the analogy that we already gave, we cannot equip the Narnian embassy at home - we have to go to the embassy, \u200b\u200bwhich really represents the Kingdom of Narnia.

Therefore, for the Church it is important not only the continuity of faith, but also what is called apostolic succession. We read in the New Testament that the apostles, through ordination, ordained bishops in each church, and the people appointed by them received the right (and obligation), in turn, to carry out ordinations further (see, for example, Titus 1: 5). An uninterrupted chain of ordinations stretches from the times of the apostles to the present day, and it connects any priest in any Orthodox parish with the Lord and the apostles, and the Eucharist, which is celebrated in every church - with the Last Supper.

The day will come when our Lord will return in glory, and His Kingdom will be clearly established, but it is already in the world and calls everyone to join him. The Church, as a heavenly embassy, \u200b\u200baccepts those who wish to accept the citizenship of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Can you believe without the Church? If a person's faith cannot bring him to the Church, can such faith bring him to heaven? Indeed, the requirement to be baptized and to participate in the Eucharist is quite feasible and outwardly not at all burdensome. And if a person does not want to do at least this, then he does not want to. Where can we talk about the enormous internal work incommensurate with this small external effort, which is necessary for faith to truly settle in the soul, and not in words.

Faith, as described in the New Testament, is manifested in Baptism, the Eucharist, and keeping the commandments. Why not just “faith in the heart” and the observance of ethical commandments? For a number of reasons, one of which (only one) is a person's tendency to self-deception. It is easy to convince yourself that you - unlike others - keep the commandments and love others. Most people do it. It is not difficult to love one's neighbor “in general,” but when it comes to exercising his faith, a person discovers that “priests” and parishioners are so unpleasant to him that he does not want to spend Sunday morning in their company. They are fat, they drive Mercedes cars, and, according to rumors, they sell tobacco and vodka. If a person cannot, for the sake of Christ's commandment about the Eucharist, “do this in remembrance of me”, overcome his dislike for people, and, as a rule, dislike in absentia, built on newspaper materials, it means that both with faith and with love for neighbor never mind.

The Lord does not require everyone to die for Him, He demands at least to reach the Chalice. And if this simple requirement remains unfulfilled, then what can we say about more?

The other side of the Eucharist is the promise associated with it. On what basis do we believe that the Lord will resurrect us to eternal life? Because we were - and will go again - to Communion. The Lord says: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. It's like a signature and a seal: we belong to Him and eat at His table.

Does this mean that people who are not baptized or who neglect the Eucharist are deprived of God's promises? The Word of God says there are exceptions. The Church knows even unbaptized saints. For example, some pagans, amazed by the confession of Christian martyrs, exclaimed: "And I am a Christian!" They were immediately killed, so that they did not have time to get baptized, much less come to Communion. God can act outside the Sacraments, when He Himself wants it and when there is no other possibility for the person himself. But God does not act where His action is denied. He has established certain rites in which we can express our faith so that He will receive it. He wanted so, it is not for us to dictate our terms to Him. If we do not want to fulfill them, then we do not want to. If we fulfill them, then the promises that He gave apply to us. If not, then no.

When we enter into certain relationships with other people, we manifest this in certain symbolic actions. We sign contracts or sign at the registry office. The relationship itself is not limited to these ritual actions, but if we evade these actions, it means that we do not want these relationships or are afraid and deceive ourselves and others. It all depends on ourselves. The Lord said His word: Go teach all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age (Matt 28: 19-20). Let it be!